THE PERCHERON HOUSE. 49 



must, from the beginning, lay down as a principle that 

 Loth are more expensive than is interbreeding. A race 

 to become fit to receive a foreign cross, should be prepared 

 for it in advance, in order to shorten, as much as possible, 

 the distance existing between the breed so formed and 

 proved and that which we seek to create. 



In fact, the foreign cross can do no good, unless the de- 

 sired qualities in the race upon which it is made are per- 

 manent, fixed, and characteristic. 



Why not think also of increasing our resources by bet- 

 ter cultivation, by liberal feeding, by choosing, as I have 

 said above, among the race of the country, the most per- 

 fect types and those most likely to correct what is vicious 

 while they impart their own good qualities? Methods of 

 this kind, pursued for a long tjme and persistently, are 

 alone capable of preparing, without inconvenience, for a 

 foreign cross. 



Drain your wet meadows, irrigate your hill-sides, fertil- 

 ize your soil by the use of improving manures, make pro- 

 ductive fields everywhere, create meadows, grow heavy 

 oats, enlarge your stables and make them clean, healthy 

 and airy. When you have done this, then, but not before, 

 you can cross your races with foreign blood, more delicate 

 than yours and accustomed to and requiring greater care 

 and attention. 



I know that this slowly progressive manner does not 

 possess the sympathies of those who, at the commence- 

 ment, are restless at not having already reached the goal. 

 But it is sure and free from errors, whilst the other, 

 (France has but too many examples of this), after money 

 squandered and years wasted, reduces the breeder who 

 has recourse to it to a more miserable condition than that 

 from which he wished to escape. 



Our furia francese, which renders us irresistible in 

 war, our fancy for new fashions, which gives birth to 

 those wonders which the world hails with ecstacy, and 

 3 



